Research On The Medium And Small-sized Western Han Tombs In The Suburbs Of Chang'an City

The medium and small-sized Westem Han tombs in the suburbs of Chang'an city, refer to all the Western Han tombs lying in the near suburbs, except the ones of the kings and marquis. The Western Han mausoleums are beyond of the area, so the paper will not cover tombs attached to them. The large tombs filled with sand or charcoal are out of discussion too.Since the last century, the research on the medium and small-sized Westem Han tombs in the suburbs of Chang'an city has experienced Beginning, Primary and Chronology Establishing, total three stages. Up to now, the estimated number of the tombs which have been excavated is over 10,000, and the research subjects have covered all the related areas. But the questions, like the chronology, tomb group distribution, the origination and evolution, cemetery, diffusion, the reason for evolution ect. still are not well solved.Limited to the materials, research method, and perceiving level of nowadays, it is not that all the above questions can be resolved. The paper mainly does research on its distribution around chang'an city, chronology, the origination, evolution, and the diffusion (take Luoyang area as an example) by adopting the methods of the cultural ingredients analysis, and linking the research on the tombs and the culture they reflect.When the distribution of the medium and small-sized Western Han tombs in the suburbs of Chang'an city are discussed, the author considers not only the tomb itself, but also where the tomb owner dwelt. On the basis of excavation and finds, a tomb distribution sketch map is drawn. It can be easily found from the map, that in the east and south suburbs there are more than 150 tomb groups or cemeteries, but in the west and north, just four. And then the geographical reason, distribution features of tomb group, tomb mound and the related constructions, sources of tomb owners are analyzed one by one.The researchers in Xi'an area, always can not find the medium and small-sized Western Han tombs of the initial stage (汉初) in the suburbs of Chang'an city. To solve this question, the author traces back to the history of that time and rethinks the archaeological cultures of the time too, and then concludes, at Early Western Han period, there should be three archaeological cultures which existed in the suburbs of the city, that is Qin culture, Han culture and Chu culture. After the analysis on the participants of the war at the end of Qin dynasty, the construction of Chang 'an city and palaces inside the city at the initial stage of the western Han, the author forwards that at the initial stage the archaeological culture in the suburbs of the city, should be consisted ofQin, Chu and five other states cultures, but mainly are Qin and Chu. At the end, the author arrives at that the initial stage is the period that Han culture is forming; to Wenjing period (文景时期), lots of the medium and small-sized Western Han tombs came into being, and so Han culture was formed at this time.As to the origination and the evolution of the medium and small-sized Western Han tombs, the author starts from the Qin tombs of Warring states and Qin dynasty in Xi'an and Xianyang area. By comparing the tombs of the Western Han with Qin at three aspects, the author detailedly describes the Qin culture factors in the Western Han tombs of the early period. Relatively speaking, the medium and small-sized Western Han tombs in the suburbs of Chang'an city, has more Qin culture factors than those of large tombs. Contrarily, the large tombs include more Chu culture ingredients than those of medium and small-sized ones. In order to clearly observe the evolution of tomb system, accessories and glazed vessels of the medium and small-sized Western Han tombs, the author synthesizes the materials of Donghan and Xijin tombs in Xi'an area and does comparison and contrast on them to see the cultural transition and inherit. The similarity and difference of medium and small-sized tombs of Qin, Han, Xijin reflect the transition and inherit of the three cultures.After Han culture being formed at Wenjing period in the suburbs of Chang'an city, it keeps changing. Within more than 200 years of the Western Han dynasty, the evolutions of the medium and small-sized tombs have four features.The above is the probe into the formation, evolution, and main characters of the Han culture. As long as Han culture spread to a larger area, a larger Han culture circle will be formed; it spread to the whole country, a national Han culture circle can be formed too. So the diffusion of Han culture is always the hot point in the academic field. Limited to time and paper length, the author, taking Luoyang area as an example, from the viewpoint of the influences of the Western Han tombs in the suburbs of Chang'an city to Luoyang area, talks about the diffusion of Han culture at short distance. The research on the medium and small-sized Western Han tombs in the suburbs of Chang'an city, can not just focuses on the tomb itself. The most important is to combine the tomb and the culture it reflects. This also is what the author attempts to reach and the characteristics of this paper.